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Investigating Design: A Review of Forty Years of Design Research

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1 L. B. Archer, “A View of the Nature of the
Design Research” in Design: Science:
Method, R. Jacques, J. A. Powell, eds.
(Guilford, Surrey: IPC Business Press Ltd.,
198 1), 30 –47. L. Bruce Archer gave this
definition at the Portsmouth DRS confer-
ence.
2 H. A. Simon, The Sciences of the
Artificial (Cam bridge, M A: M IT Press,
Third Edition, 1999).
3 C. Frayling, “Research in Art and Design,”
Royal College of Art Research Papers 1:1
(199 3/ 4).
16
Investigating Design: A Review of
Forty Years of Design Research
Nigan Bayazit
What Is Design Research?
This paper will start to answer the above question with the definition
of L. Bruce Archer: “Design research is systematic inquiry whose goal
is knowledge of, or in, the embodiment of configuration, composi-
tion, structure, purpose, value, and meaning in man-made things
and systems.” 1
In this paper, looking at design research from the design
methodology and design science perspectives restricts our view in
a sense that is necessary for such a topic. Design research tries to
answer the obligations of design to the humanities:
A Design research is concerned with the physical embodiment
of man-made things, how these things perform their jobs,
and how they work.
B Design research is concerned with construction as a human
activity, how designers work, how they think, and how they
carry out design activity.
C Design research is concerned with what is achieved at the
end of a purposeful design activity, how an artificial thing
appears, and what it means.
D Design research is concerned with the embodiment of
configurations.
E Design research is a systematic search and acquisition of
knowledge related to design and design activity.
The objectives of design research are the study, research, and inves-
tigation of the artificial made by human beings, and the way these
activities have been directed either in academic studies or manu-
facturing organizations. As Simon indicates, we can call overall
activities of design research, “the sciences of the artificial.” 2 Some
of the art, craft, and design people call what they do for art and
design “research.” That kind of research is not the subject of this
paper. An artist’s practicing activities when creating a work of art or
a craftwork cannot be considered research. Yet it is possible for an
external observer to do research into how an artist is working on his
or her work of art to make a contribution to the common knowledge.
These can be observable phenomena. As Christopher Frayling 3 says,
“Research through art and design is less straightforward, but still
© 2 004 M assachusetts Institute of Technology
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004

4 As Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graf indi-
cated in their book, Modern Arastirmaci
(translated into Turkish from the M odern
Researcher), (Ankara: TUBITAK, 1 993).
5 Nigel Cross, “Designerly Ways of
Knowing: Design Discipline Versus
Design Science” in Design Plus Research,
Proceedings of the Politenico di Milano
Conference, Silvia Picazzaro, Amilton
Arruda, and Dijon De Morales, eds. (May
18– 20, 2 000), 43–4 8.
6 G. Broadbent, “The Developm ent of
Design M ethods,” Design Methods and
Theories 13:1 (1979 ): 41– 45.
7 Nigel Cross has several publications
in various conferences in “The Recent
History of Post-Industrial Design
Methods” in R. Ham ilton, ed., Design and
Industry (London: The Design Council,
198 0).
8 N. Cross, Developments in Design
Methodology (Chichester, UK: John W iley
& Sons, 1984).
9 N. Cross, “A History of Design
Methodology” in Design Methodology
and Relationship with Science, NATO ASI
Series, M . J. De Vries, N. Cross, and D. P.
Grant, eds. (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 19 93).
10 V. Hubka, E. Eder, Design Science
(London: Springer Verlag, 1 996).
11 N. Bayazit, Endüstri ürünleri Tasariminda
ve Mimarlikta Tasarlama Metotlarina
Giriß (Introduction to Design M ethods
in Industrial Product Design and
Architecture), [In Turkish] (Istanbul:
Literatur Yayinevi 1 994).
12 V. Margolin and R. Buchanan, The Idea
of Design: A Design Issues Reader
(Cambridge, M A: The M IT Press, 19 95).
13 Doctoral Education in Design:
Proceedings of the Ohio Conference
(8– 11 October, 1 998).
14 In 1 986, the Design Methods Group
celebrated its twentieth anniversary
with som e special review s in its journal.
D. Grant edited the anniversary issue of
Design Methods and Theories Journal of
DMG 20 :2 (19 86).
identifiable and visible,” consisting of materials research, develop-
mental work, and action research. Architects and engineers have
applied these definitions of design research since the 1960s.
All design research reports are related to the history or past
activity of the subject area under study. Studies of the present are
part of the past because every research report has to prove its roots
in the past.4 I will try to identify some instances of the state of the art
from some research papers as well as books on design research. This
paper will provide a summary of design research history concerning
design methods and scientific approaches to design.
Many writers 5 have pointed to De Stijl in the early 1920s as
an example of the desire to “scientize” design. The roots of design
research in many disciplines since the 1920s are found within the
Bauhaus, which was established as the methodological foundation
for design education. After the Bauhaus closed, most of the staff
moved to the U.S., Britain, or Russia, where they were well accepted
and took the Bauhaus tradition to other institutions. Moholy-Nagy
moved to the U.S., where he finally became the director of the “New
Bauhaus,” which became the Institute of Design at the Illinois
Institute of Technology in 1949. Gropius went to Harvard, and
brought a new line of thought to that side of the U.S. Le Corbusier
described the house as an objectively designed “machine for living.”
He envisioned a desire to produce works of art and design based on
objectivity and rationality. During this same period, Buckminster
Fuller sought to develop a “design science” that would obtain maxi-
mum human advantage from a minimal use of energy and materials.
In 1929, he called his concept of design “Dymaxion” or “4-D.”
Role of Design Methods in Design Research
Main sources for the history of design methods and design research
can be found in various publications. Some historical reviews of
design methods have been written by Geoffrey Broadbent,6 Nigel
Cross,7, 8, 9 Vladimir Hubka and Ernst Eder,10 Nigan Bayazit,11 Margolin
and Buchanan,12 at various conferences.13, 14, 15, 16
Horst Rittel 17 made the following statement in an interview:
The reason for the emergence of design methods in the late
‘50s and early ‘60s was the idea that the ways in which the
large-scale NASA and military-type technological problems
had been approached might profitably be transferred into
civilian or other design areas.
After World War II, the new techniques that had been used in the
design and development of arms and wartime equipment, and the
methods and techniques used in developing many new inventions,
attracted many designers. Creativity methods were developed
mainly in the U.S. in response to the launching of the first satellite,
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004 17

15 “Foundation of the Future: Doctoral
Education in Design Conference” at La
Clusaz, France (9– 1 2 July 200 0).
16 This conference brought together the HfG
people and state-of-the-art review ers of
design research, Design Plus Research,
Proceedings of the Politecnico di Milano
Conference (M ay 1 8–20 2000).
17 In an interview with Horst Rittel in the
197 2 issue “Son of Rittelthink” in The
DMG 5th Anniversary Report, he gave the
basic reasons for design methods.
18 D. H. Edel, Introduction to Creative
Design (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall Inc., 1 967).
19 J. R. M. Alger and C. V. Hays, Creative
Synthesis in Design (Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 196 4).
20 M. S. Allen, Morphological Creativity:
The Miracle of Your Hidden Brain Power
(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall Inc., 1962 ).
21 B. Jerrard, R. Newport, and M . Trueman,
Managing New Product Innovation
(London, Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis,
199 9).
22 H. Rittel, The DMG 5th Anniversary
Report (1 972).
23 J. C. Jones and and D. G. Thornley,
Conference on Design Methods (Oxford
University Press, 1 963). This conference
was the turning point of design studies.
24 C. Alexander, “The Determ ination of
Components for an Indian Village” in
Conference on Design Methods, J. C.
Jones and D. G. Thornley, eds. (Oxford
University Press, 1 963). The method in
his Ph.D. thesis was explained for first
tim e at this conference.
25 C. Alexander, Notes on the Synthesis of
Form (Cambridge, M A: Harvard University
Press, 19 64).
26 S. Chermayeff and C. Alexander,
Community and Privacy: Toward a New
Architecture of Humanism (New York:
Doubleday and Co. Inc., 1 963). This
book contains the radio speeches of
Chermayeff and also Alexander’s method
for patterns on the housing neighbor-
hood.
27 S. A. Gregory, ed., The Design Method
(London: Butterworth Press, 1 966 .
18
the Soviet Union’s “Sputnik,” which caused the American govern-
ment to free up quite a lot of money to do research on creativity.
18, 19, 20
During the 1960s, it became evident that designers no longer
could rely solely on their ability to focus upon the product as the
center of a design task. Due to technological developments and the
implications of mass production, interest had to be shifted from
hardware and form to the consideration of human needs. This
required a new look at the subject of design methods.21
First Generation Design Methods
The influence of systems analysis and systems theory on design
established the grounds for the foundation of “systematic design
methods,” which Horst Rittel 22 later called “first generation design
methods.” The Conference on Design Methods, which was organized
by J. C. Jones and D. G. Thornley,23 was the first scientific approach
to design methods in England. The methods proposed at that confer-
ence were simplistic in character. Everyone was systematizing his or
her own approach to design, and externalizing it as design method.
Morris Asimow, a chemical engineer, wrote the book Introduction
to Design, published in 1962, about engineering design. L. Bruce
Archer, the previous HfG teacher, became the head of the Design
Research Unit in the Royal College of Art in 1964, and published
his book Systematic Methods for Designers in 1965. His method was
based on critical path analysis, a model of operations research, and
gave design research examples. These publications can be considered
pioneering examples of design methods and scientific approaches
to design.
The first Ph.D. thesis in design methods by Christopher
Alexander,24, 25 entitled “Notes on the Synthesis of Form,” broke new
ground in architecture. S. Chermayeff and C. Alexander26 dedicated
their book, Community and Privacy, to Walter Gropius. It applied
“pattern language,” using the same approach as Alexander in his
Ph.D. thesis. Alexander tried to split the design problems into solv-
able small patterns by applying information theory. He sorted out
those that interacted with each other, and solved the problems of
each group by drawing a diagram in which the interactions—either
fit or misfit—of user requirements were resolved between the
components within and among patterns.
In 1965, Sidney Gregory’s27 paper, included in The Design
Method proceedings of the conference he organized in Birmingham,
defined for the first time the concept of “design science.” That
conference contained papers on design research, as well as the design
methods used in different engineering disciplines. The late Nobel
laureate Herbert A. Simon from Carnegie Mellon University, invited
to deliver the Karl Taylor Crompton lectures at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in the spring of 1968, used this opportunity
to present the thesis that had been central to his research. It was
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004
 published under the title The Sciences of the Artificial that same year.28
He proposed applying the extensive scientific approach to the
sciences of the artificial in economics as well as to engineering and
other disciplines, in which the design of the artificial is the subject of
its own discipline. The artificial here includes all kinds of the man-
made things and organizations. He and his colleagues presented
artificial intelligence (AI) in design at Carnegie Mellon University.
During that period, research approaches to design became
common in Europe and the U.S. The conference/course, “The
Teaching of Design—Design Methods in Architecture,” was held
in HfG in Ulm in April 1966, and following that at the 1967 Design
Methods in Architecture Symposium 29 held in Portsmouth. Organized
by Geoffrey Broadbent and Anthony Ward, the symposium looked
at the design research approaches to design.
Broadbent commented on the symposium as follows:
The 1967 Symposium was held at a particular moment in
history when general change in consciousness was taking
place of the kind which Kuhn (1962) would have called
paradigm shift. This was having profound effects on society
and on social organizations in general including—which is
important for us—the role of the designer in society.30

Design methods people were looking at rational methods of incorpo-

rating scientific techniques and knowledge into the design process to
make rational decisions to adapt to the prevailing values, something
that was not always easy to achieve. They were attempting to work
out the rational criteria of decision making, and trying to optimize
the decisions.
Some designers thought that their approaches were a waste
of time. This view was not exactly true. The design problems in
architecture and in engineering after World War II were severe. The
postwar diminished male labor force was a very important influence,
and required new production methods, and new designs to meet
the new needs of the society in Europe and in the U.S. The Cold
War with the Eastern Block countries gave impetus to new human
requirements, with scientific approaches to design in this new era
generated from political decisions.
As Broadbent31 said after the Portsmouth Symposium in
1967:
28 H. A. Simon, The Sciences of the
The Symposium had been set up by Tony Ward to include
Artificial, 1 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
196 8). a specific confrontation between those whom he saw
29 G. Broadbent and A. Ward, eds., Design as behaviorists, representing a mechanized, quantified
Methods in Architecture (London: Lund view of design and those (including himself) he saw
Hum phries, 19 69).
as existentialist/phenomenologist (formerly Marxist)
30 G. Broadbent, “The Morality of Design”
concerned, above all, “with the humanness” of human
in Design: Science: Method (1 981),
309 –328 .
beings.
31 G. Broadbent in Design: Science: Method His “behaviorists” included Bruce Archer; Tom Markus
(19 81): 3 09. above all; Ray Struder, whose very title “The Dynamics of

Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004 19


32 (DM G) Newsletter, published by Sage
Publications. Gary M oore was the editor
of the first issue of the second volume;
and J. C. Jones, Murray Milne, Barry
Poyner, Horst Rittel, Charles W. Rush,
and Henry Sanoff were the Editorial
Committee. C. Alexander, M . Starr, G.
Nadler, W. Issard, M. B. Teitz, and B.
Harris were among the members of the
Review Committee for the new publica-
tion.
33 DM G Design Methods Group, “First
Annual International Conference Purpose
and Program,” MIT (Cam bridge, MA:
June 2–4 , 196 8).
34 Ibid.
35 Siegfried Maser, Horst Rittel, Jürgen
Joedicke, Hans-Otto Shulte, John
Luckman, West Churchman, Horst Höfler,
and many others were among the writers
of these publications.
36 IGM A, Arbeitsberihte
zur Planungsmethodik 1:
Bewertungsprobleme in der Bauplanung
(Stuttgart/ Bern: Karl Kramer Verlag,
197 0).
37 IGM A, Arbeitsberihte zur
Planungsmethodik 4: Entwurfsmethoden
in der Bauplanung (Stuttgart/ Bern: Karl
Kramer Verlag, 1970).
38 IGM A, Arbeitsberihte zur
Planungsmethodik 6: Nutzbeteiligung an
Planungprozessen (Stuttgart/ Bern: Karl
Kramer Verlag, 1972).
39 C. Alexander, “State of Art in Design
Methodology: Interview with C.
Alexander” DMG Newsletter (March
197 1): 3– 7.
20
Behavior-Contingent Physical Systems” summarized what
they were all about. Design was to be “scientific”—Struder
was looking for a “unit of analyses in design measurable,
in his words, against dimensions that are both relevant and
empirically accessible.” The designer has to start by analyz-
ing human behavior, from which he could derive “quanti-
ties, qualities, and relationships.”
Meanwhile, a design methods group was established at the
University of California, Berkeley in 1967, and began to publish a
newsletter called Design Methods Group (DMG) Newsletter. 32 This
newsletter provided information about research in progress, as well
as publications in the fields of design research covering planning,
architecture, and industrial design mainly from the U.S. and UK,
but seldom from Europe.
In June 1968, the DMG International Conference was orga-
nized at MIT. The purpose of the conference was identified in the
“DMG Design Methods Group Conference Purpose and Program”33
leaflet:
The First Annual International Conference is a research
conference in the theory and application of design, plan-
ning, and engineering methodology. The purpose of the
conference is twofold: first to provide a format for research-
ers to present their current work for evaluation from their
peers and, second, to encourage dialogue between the
researchers and the practitioners who are interested in the
application of this work. Because the conference is directed
both at the researcher and the practitioner, the responsibil-
ity for the level of communication lies with the speaker.34
In 1973, The Design Activity International Conference in London, in
1977, the California-Berkeley Design Methods in Action Conference,
and in 1976, the Portsmouth Changing Design Conference all were
indicators of the interest by designers and neighboring disciplines
in design research.
In West Germany in 1970, the Institute for the Basis of Modern
Architecture (Institute für Grundlagen der Modernen Architectur)
began to produce a series of publications called Studies Related to
Planning Methods (Arbeitsberichte zur Planungsmethodik). These stud-
ies were following the design methods movement in the U.S. and
UK.35, 36, 37, and 38
In the ‘70s, two leaders who were pioneers of design meth-
odology announced a manifesto against the design methodology of
the era. Christopher Alexander 39 said:
The odd thing is that people have lost sight completely of
this objective. They have very definitely lost the motiva-
tion for making better buildings. I feel that a terrific part
of it has become an intellectual game, and it’s largely for
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004

40 J. C. Jones, “How M y Thoughts about
Design M ethods have Changed During
the Years,” Design Methods and
Theories: Journal of DMG and DRS 11:1
(January– March, 1 977).
41 H. Rittel, The DMG 5th Anniversary
Report (1 972).
42 N. Cross, Design Methodology and
Relationship with Science (19 93).
that reason that I’ve disassociated from the field. I resigned
from the Board of Editors of the DMG Newsletter because I
felt that the purpose which the magazine represents is not
really valuable, and I don’t want to be identified with them.
Even though he rejected the idea of design methods, he
continued to apply his own pattern language to design problems and
user design participation utilizing ready-made patterns, in various
places of the world. Although he wrote the first comprehensive book,
which comprised almost all of the methods relevant to design up to
the 1970s, Christopher Jones first refused to be a professor of design
discipline at the Open University, and then rejected design methods
in the first issue of Design Methods and Theories Journal in 1977. He
explained that his rejection aimed at the computer use, behaviorism,
and continued attempts to fix all of life into logical frameworks.40 He
moved into another field of design, literature.
People like Churchman had warned at least eight or ten years
earlier of the consequences of the illegitimate simplifications of the
first generation design techniques. But the reaction had led to a kind
of unintentional self-elimination. The first-generation design meth-
odology had turned into a sort of academic subculture.41
Second-Generation Design Methods
Herbert Simon, in his book The Sciences of the Artificial, defined
design problems as “wicked” problems, for which finding appro-
priate solutions was very difficult and each solution to a problem
created new problems to be solved. Reactions against design meth-
ods by Christopher Alexander surprised newcomers to the field.
Horst Rittel, calling the paradigm shifts in design “generations,”
saved the design methods, according to Nigel Cross42 in his article.
Horst Rittel’s proposal of the idea of generations for design let
newcomers find new ways for themselves. First-generation design
methods were simplistic, not matured enough, and not capable of
meeting the requirements of complex, real-world problems. The
design methodologists were trying to apply OR models and systems
theory to design problems in a very abstract way for every problem.
The first-generation design methods were formulated and applied
by scientists and designers. The objectives of the design problem also
were identified by them during the design process, which caused
rigidity in design decisions and unexpected failures. These simplistic
methods were necessary at the beginning.
Horst Rittel proposed new argumentative methods as
“second- generation design methods.” His methods, argumentative
method, and IBIS (Issue Based Information System) were problem
identification methods, which were influenced by the British philoso-
pher Karl Popper. These second-generation design methods began
to compensate for the inadequacy of the first-generation design
methods. User involvement in design decisions and the identifica-
tion of their objectives were the main characteristics of the second-
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004 21
43 N. Bayazit, Abstracts: Architectural
Design: “Interrelations among Theory,
Research, and Practice,” Design
Methods and Theories, 1 2:3 / 4 (1978 ).
44 N. Bayazit, (Guest Editor of the
issue), Papers: Architectural design.
“Interrelations among Theory, Research,
and Practice,” Design Methods and
Theories 13:3/ 4, (19 79).
45 H. A. Simon, “Rational Choice and
the Structure of the Environm ent,”
Psychological Review 63 (1956 ): 12 9–
138 .
46 L. B. Archer, Systematic Methods for
Designers (London: The Design Council,
196 5).
47 G. Pask, “The Conception of a Shape and
the Evolution of a Design” in J. C. Jones
and D. G. Thornley, eds., Conference
on Design Methods (Oxford: Pergam on
Press, 19 63).
48 G. Broadbent, Design in Architecture
(London: John Wiley and Sons, 1973 ),
115 .
49 Leading design researchers of the era
were Peter Cowan at the University
of Sydney, Herbert A. Simon and Alan
New ell at Carnegie Mellon University,
and Horst Rittel at the University of
California at Berkeley.
50 M. Langfort, Personal Hygiene Attitudes
and Practices in 1000 Middle-Class
Households (Ithaca, New York: Cornell
University Agricultural Experiment
Station, New York State College of Hom e
Economics, 19 65).
51 A. Kira The Bathroom (New and
expanded edition), (Ithaca, New York: The
Viking Press, 196 6).
52 Cornell researchers also did various
studies on housing. See G. H. Beyer,
Housing and Personal Values, M emoir
364 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell, University
Press, 19 59); office furniture, as well
as different energy-consuming activi-
ties of workers in E. C. Bratton, Oxygen
Consumed in Household Tasks (Ithaca,
New York: Cornell University Press,
195 0); E. C. Bratton, Some Factors of Cost
to the Body in Standing and Sitting to
Work Under Different Postural Conditions
(Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press,19 59); E. Knowles, Postures and
Other Physiological Responses of the
Working Surfaces in Household Ironing
(Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press, 19 43).
22
generation design methods. User participation was a new democratic
approach parallel to the prevailing political movements of the era.
The Design Participation Conference in Manchester was organized
by Nigel Cross in 1971. As indicated by Bayazit: 43, 44
User participation to P&D is a very wide and comprehensive
subject, with its political, ideological, psychological, managerial,
administrative, legal and economical aspects in relation to various
countries. The concept of user participation is as wide and variable
as that of democracy.
The success of the participatory design process depended on
the designer’s awareness of user values, and obliged professionals to
collaborate with social scientists as well as anthropologists to carry
out design research. There were some obstacles in the application of
participatory design in larger-scale projects, such as those in urban
planning.
Development of Scientific Research in Design
In the manufacturing industry, design has been formally acknowl-
edged as a separate activity for at least the last 150 years. From the
beginning of the twentieth century, the concept of design systems
and operations was familiar to the people who developed and used
the methods of work-study. In the U.S. in 1909 and 1917, Gilbert’s
motion study was based on the intelligent observation of people at
work. Through the end of World War I, the equipment and machines
in factories used by the war industries were relatively unsophisti-
cated. During that war, new kinds of weapons such as aircraft and
tanks came into widespread use, and were designed for mechanical
efficiency. The first research studies focused on the design of aircraft
to improve the performance of the product. Throughout the 1920s,
industrial fatigue research became the most important subject.
Volks wagen was another initiator of performance studies aimed at
increasing the efficiency of the car for the German public. In 1937,
Volkswagen sought to produce cheap as well as physically powerful
and long-lasting cars. Thousands of repeated performance tests influ-
enced their engineering as well as industrial design, and inspired the
development of new and unusual designs. It became a good model
for the design of cars and a host of other products.
Facing social and economic problems after World War II,
and for the purpose of solving complex design problems and
meeting user requirements, the fact of design was considered as
a problem-solving and decision-making activity. The scientific
developments during World War II made great contributions to the
solutions of design problems, especially in the engineering disci-
plines. Multidisciplinary teams were set up consisting of engineers,
industrial designers, psychologists, physiologists, and above all,
statisticians. Especially on the engineering side after the war, it was
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004

53 A. Forty, Objects of Desire: Design and
Society, 1750–1980 (London: Thames
and Hudson, 19 86), 13 1–1 32
54 Ibid., 131 –132
55 S. Giedion, Mechanization Takes
Command (New York: Oxford University
Press, 19 48).
56 M. Mead, Cultural Patterns and Technical
Change (UNESCO, 1955).
57 J. Noble, “How and Why of Behaviour:
Social Psychology for the Architect,” The
Architects’ Journal (March 6, 1963 ).
58 F. J. Langdon, “The Design of Mechanized
Offices,” The Architects’ Journal (M ay 1
and 22, 1 963).
59 P. Manning, ed., Office Design: “A
Study of Environment, Department of
Building Science,” University of Liverpool
(Liverpool: Pilkington Research Unit,
196 5), 27 .
60 Ibid., 45– 51.
61 More than 928 different anthropom etric
measurements, as well as dim ensional
literature on dwelling equipm ent, under
the title of “Anatom y for Planners”
were collected by the National Swedish
Institute for Building Research Ergonomic
Studies were necessary in these coun-
tries because people in the past were
sleeping in a sitting posture, and had
bed lengths shorter than the height of an
average person which was not healthy.
62 E. Berglund, Bord (Stockholm: Svenska
Slöjdföreningen, 19 57).
63 E. Berglund, Skap (Stockholm: Svenska
Slöjdföreningen, 19 60).
64 Styrelsen Kugl, God, Bostad I dagt och I
morgon, (Stockholm : Bostada 1964 ).
65 L. B. Archer, Systematic Method for
Designers (London: The Design Council,
196 5).
66 S. E. Harrison, Work Study Officer of
the North East Metropolitan Regional
Hospital Board, conducted the trials.
During the research study, no less than
one million items of information were
recorded. At the same time, sociologists
under the direction of Joan Woodward
of the Imperial College of Science and
Technology were engaged in finding out
the opinions of patients and staff about
conventional and prototype bedsteads
at King Edward’s Hospital (Design of
Bedsteads, King Edward’s Hospital,
London, 1967).
necessary to move faster and faster to reconstruct Europe from its
rubble. Cybernetics developed during the war by Norbert Wiener as
the science of management became the model for rational behavior
employed in economics, and obtaining information and making
decisions using computer systems.45 Consequently, cybernetics
influenced many design methodologists and design theoreticians.
Design theoreticians such as L. Bruce Archer46 and Gordon Pask 47
saw the similarities between designers’ design behavior and the
organisms’ self-control systems, and developed their own theories
accordingly.
The study of human performance and man-machine rela-
tionship developed great momentum. Ergonomics and work-study
were well known by many people, and applied to designs during the
war. Scientific management gave workers a healthier environment,
and introduced new designs of office furniture, thereby improving
worker comfort. Changing postures with furniture reduced fatigue,
and made workers happier and more efficient.
As Broadbent48 said:
After the war, it became necessary, therefore, to identify
their combined interest in such a way that they could
continue to contribute to it with a real sense of purpose. So,
in 1949, Murrell and others arranged an interdisciplinary
meeting of anatomists, physiologists, industrial medical
officers, industrial hygienists, design engineers, archi-
tects, illuminating engineers, and so on, out of which the
Ergonomic Research Society was formed.
These experiences stimulated interest in design research in the
1950s.
Cornell University, MIT, the University of Sydney, Carnegie
Mellon University, and the University of California were the centers
for this development line, especially in the design science and
computer aids to design by the leading theorists.49 One of the first
social research studies was conducted at the Cornell University
Agricultural Experiment Station on one-thousand army personnel
to investigate hygienic behaviors and attitudes.50 That was followed
by one of the ergonomics as well as cultural studies on bathroom
and sanitary fixtures, which was conducted by Alexander Kira,51
and influenced the sanitary fixture market with its new approach
to human body and cleanliness concepts all over the world, starting
in the U.S. and the UK.52 Cultural anthropology and its influence on
design began during the 1950s. 53, 54, 55, 56 In the UK, the application of
social psychology to design started in the 1960s. 57, 58, 59, 60 In Sweden,
various ergonomics studies were made on housing, especially on
bedrooms and other home spaces.61, 62, 63, 64 In the UK, Loughborough
was another center for scientific research related to ergonomics. At
the Royal College of Art, Misha Black and L. Bruce Archer were
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004 23

67 Kenneth Agnew, along with a support-
ing team, designed the bedstead in the
Royal College of Art, as cited by
L. B. Archer in “Systematic M ethod
for Designers” (196 5).
68 L. B. Archer, Design: Science: Method
(198 1).
24
doing extensive design research for industry. In his book, L. Bruce
Archer65 mentions research work on hospital beds that derived from
work-study observations in the “Design of Hospital Bedsteads.” 66,
67
The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) was
founded in 1970, and the first EDRA conference was organized by
Henry Sanoff that same year, and continued annually, mainly in the
U.S. Their research topics were concentrated on evaluative studies
of architecture and environmental planning. The first collaborative
studies for the investigation of user requirements were made by soci-
ologists, psychologists, social psychologists, and design profession-
als, and began to develop research methods for the artificial. Also
man-environment research (MER) began in various universities in
the U.S., and new journals such as Environment and Behavior and the
Journal of Architectural Planning and Research began to be published
in the United States. Sometime later in Europe, the International
Architectural Psychology Society (IAPS) was established, and served
as the European counterpart of EDRA and MER.
Meanwhile, the Design Research Society (DRS) was founded
in London in April 1966. Design Methods Group (DMG) and
DRS started to publish the DMG-DRS Journal instead of the DMG
Newsletter until 1979, when DRS started the Design Studies journal,
edited by Nigel Cross since then. In 1980, the Design: Science:
Method Conference was organized at Portsmouth, in which design
research and the contribution of science to design were the subjects
of discussion. The conference organizers put forward the question
to all of the members of the Design Research Society, as did L. Bruce
Archer in his paper in the conference entitled, “What Is Design
Research that It Is Different from Other Forms of Research?” 68 At
that same conference, the author of this paper presented the exist-
ing situation in design research. That paper was published in Design
Studies.69 We tried to categorize the research areas in that paper such
as profession-based theories, user-based theories, user-profession-
based theories, theories dealing with building appearance, and theo-
ries dealing with the profession. Also, fundamental design research
tools and techniques up to that time were classified in the same
paper. The Design Policy Conference brought together increasing
numbers of design researchers in 1982 at the Royal College of Art.
That conference was the most comprehensive one of that period.
The influence of British philosopher Karl Popper showed itself on
the design theory building and scientific formulations of design
research.
Four years later, between 1986 and 1993, the Institute of
Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology began to issue the
Design Processes Newsletter, edited by Charles Owen. That newslet-
ter was concerned with design research approaches of ID, design
management, and design policy. It contained articles on a variety of
topics of interest to the design community. They were presenting the
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004

69 N. Bayazit, N. Esin, and A. Ozsoy,
“An Integrative Approach to Design
Techniques,” Design Studies, 2:4 (1981 ).
70 C. T. Larson, ed., SER2: School
Environmental Research, University of
Michigan (196 5).
71 L. M osley, “A Rational Design Theory
for Planning Buildings, Based on the
Analysis and Solutions of the Circulation
Problems,” The Architects’ Journal,
(Septem ber 11 , 196 3): 52 5–53 7.
72 T. A. Markus, ed., Building Performance
(New York: John W iley, 1972 ).
73 J. Gero, Computer Applications in
Architecture (London: Applied Science
Publishers, 19 77).
74 J. Gero, “Artificial Intelligence in
Design,” Proceedings of the Fourth
International Conference on the
Applications of Artificial Intelligence
in Engineering, Cambridge, UK
(Southam pton: Springer-Verlag, 1 989).
75 J. Gero, Artificial Intelligence in Design
‘91 (Oxford, UK: Butterw orth-Heinemann,
199 1).
76 J. Gero, Artificial Intelligence in
Design ‘94 (Boston: Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 19 94).
77 M. Asimow, Introduction to Design
(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall Inc, 1962).
78 T. T. Woodson, Introduction to
Engineering Design (New York: McGraw -
Hill, 1966 ).
79 V. Hubka, Konstruktionwissenschaft
(Design Science in English translation),
VDI-Zeitschrift 116 :11 (1 974): 899– 905,
and 1087 –109 4.
80 V. Hubka, Principles of Engineering
Design (Guilford, UK: Butterw orth
Scientific Press, 19 82).
81 V. Hubka and E. Eder, “A Scientific
Approach to Engineering Design,” Design
Studies 8 :3 (1 987): 123– 1 37.
82 V. Hubka and E. Eder, Design Science
(London: Springer Verlag, 1 996), 49–6 6.
projects and the research works of their faculty, as a leading design
research institution in industrial design in the world.
In the meantime, in official government organizations and
in other international organizations such as National Bureau of
Standards in the U.S., CSTB in France, the Building Research Station
in England, the Center International de Batiment (CIB) in Holland,
Government Research Centers in Sweden and Denmark, and in
many other countries, user requirement studies began in the 1960s
and continued up the 1980s. Research in Europe concentrated on
housing design and performance problems, because there still was
a great shortage of housing in Europe after World War II, and the
prefabricated buildings were indispensable.
Prefabricated building design, and research on the coordi-
nated building elements and the building layout optimization, were
well-accepted research subjects in the universities as well as in the
research centers. Building performance studies were initiated in
government research centers and universities, mainly in engineer-
ing design, applying scientific methods to design problems in new
housing construction. Various environmental characteristics of hous-
ing were subject to evaluation in these studies. In the U.S., during
the Cold War, the government supported environmental studies on
topics such as windowless buildings, and school environmental
research (SER).70 Starting in the 1960s, research areas such as acous-
tics, heat transfer, and climatic comfort in architecture were well
accepted, and continued to develop.
Researchers began to produce interactive computer graph-
ics systems. Wireframe and polygonal modeling schemes were
developed. Mosley 71 developed one of the first layout optimiza-
tion programs for hospital operating units. Beginning in the 1970s,
computer scientists became interested in systematic design methods
and design science. They were trying to program and evaluate build-
ing performance to justify scientific design decisions. At the National
Bureau of Standards in the U.S., the first International Congress on
Performance Concept in Building was organized in 1972. It brought
a new perspective to design research in architecture. Thomas A.
Markus72 and Thomas Maver had been working on building perfor-
mance at Strathclyde University. Thomas Maver, a computer-aided
design programmer, started to work on the programming of envi-
ronmental building performance evaluation programs. Also, Peter
Cowan established the building research center at the University of
Sydney in Australia. Building science and computer-aided design
were well developed by the end of 1960s, and the beginning of
1970s. They still are leaders in the field of artificial intelligence in
design.73, 74, 75, 76
On the engineering side, Morris Asimow,77 Thomas Woodson,78
Vladimir Hubka, 79, 80 Vladimir Hubka and Ernst Eder,81, 82 introduced
a new generation of systematic design methods. As Vladimir Hubka
and Ernst Eder wrote:
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004 25

83 Ibid., 50.
84 M. Asimow, Introduction to Design
(196 2).
85 J. C. Jones, Design Methods: Seeds of
Human Futures (2nd rev. ed.), (New York:
Reinhold Van Nostrand, 19 92).
86 N. Cross, Engineering Design Methods:
Strategies for Product Design (Chichester,
UK: John Wiley and Sons, 199 4).
87 L. B. Archer, Technological Innovation
(London: Science Policy Foundation
Special Publication Series, 19 71).
88 T. T. Woodson, Introduction to
Engineering Design (1966 ).
89 S. Pugh, “The Design Audit: How to Use
It,” Proceedings of Design Engineering
Conference, NEC, Birmingham : NEC,
197 9).
90 D. G. Ullman, The Mechanical Design
Process (New York: McGraw -Hill, 1992).
91 S. L. New som e, W. R. Spillers, and S.
Finger, Design Theory ‘88 (New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1 989).
26
The first evidence of change originates from the period of
the Second World War, and from the reconstruction and
construction period. [What] were the particular features of
these situations which have caused the need for improve-
ments? On one hand [there was] an unusual pressure
toward performance in a highly developed industry,
especially new and very demanding needs.... Up to [the]
year 1967, we could only find some widely scattered and
isolated groups or individual experts who proposed [a]
certain solution for [the] improvement of [the] design work.
The next period after about 1967 until today and especially
in the seventies, can be labeled as the prime time for the
initial development of design science.
Vladimir Hubka organized the first International Conference on
Engineering Design (ICED, a series since 1981) in 1967. Vladimir
Hubka established “Workshop-Design-Construction, WDK,” and
called their approach “design science,” which we can call a theoreti-
cal scientific approach to engineering design methods. They were
the representatives of the European engineering designers. In their
own words, they differentiate themselves from English-speaking
researchers:
Continental Europeans tend to being outward-looking
and trans-national, but also more formal and systematic;
English-speakers tend to become more insular and isola-
tionist, with any “foreign” language as a perceived cultural
barrier, but also more intuitive and casual, and less formal.83
Vladimir Hubka and Ernst Eder both spent several years in industry,
working and/or leading design teams. They defined design science
in the same book as: “The term ‘design science’ is to be understood
as a system of logically related knowledge, which should contain and
organize the complete knowledge about and for designing.”
English-speaking engineering design methodologists were
Morris Asimow,84 John Christopher Jones,85 Nigel Cross,86 L. Bruce
Archer,87 T. T. Woodson,88 Stuart Pugh,89 David Ullman, 90 and many
others.
In the U.S. in 1984, Nam Suh, who was then the assistant
director for engineering at the National Science Foundation (NSF),
created the Design Theory and Methodology Program. Among his
goals in creating this program was developing a science of engi-
neering design and then establishing design as an accepted field of
engineering research. From 1986 to 1988, this program was directed
by Susan Finger, followed by Jack Dixon.91
Some of the design researchers and design methodologists
were working in the field of computer-aided design, and develop-
ing their methods in relation to architectural and engineering design
problems, applying the models of OR and systems analysis. These
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004

92 M. M insky, “Steps toward Artificial
Intelligence,” Proceedings of the IRE
49 (196 1): 8– 30.
93 M. Minsky, Semantic Information
Processing (Cambridge, M A: M IT Press,
196 8).
94 K. A. Ericsson and H. A. Simon, Protocol
Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data
(Cambridge, M A: M IT Press, 1 993).
95 C. Eastm an, “On the Analysis of Intuitive
Design Process” in G. M oore, ed.,
Emerging Methods in Environment and
Planning (Cam bridge, MA: MIT Press,
197 0), 21 –37.
96 D. A. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner
(New York: Basic Books, 1983 ).
97 O. Akin, “An Exploration of the Design
Process,” Design Methods and Theories,
13 (1979 ): 115 –119.
98 N. Cross, K. Dorst, and N. Roozenburgh,
eds., Research in Design Thinking (Delft,
The Nederlands: Delft University Press,
199 2).
99 N. Cross, H. Cristiaans, and K. Dorst,
eds., Analysing Design Activity
(Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Inc.,
199 6).
100 J. Gero, Artificial Intelligence in Design
(199 1).
101 K. Dorst, Describing Design: A Compar-
ison of Padigms (Vormgeving Rotterdam:
Grafisch Ontw erp en druk, 19 97).
102 O. Akin, An Exploration of the Design
Process (1979 ).
103 N. Bayazit, Abstracts: Architectural
Design: Interrelations among Theory,
Research, and Practice (1 978).
104 N. Bayazit, Papers: Architectural Design:
Interrelations among Theory, Research,
and Practice (1 979).
105 O. Akin, Psychology of Architectural
Design (London: Pion Ltd, 1986 ).
106 Doctoral Education in Design:
Proceedings of the Ohio Conference,
(8– 11 October, 1 998).
approaches caused some problems in the fields of design method-
ology and design research, because they were thought to be too
restrictive in nature.
There was a close relationship between design research and
the developments in the IT field, especially in cognitive sciences, and
“artificial intelligence” (AI) and expert systems. Marvin Min sky,92,
93
was one of the leaders in the application of cognitive science to
AI. Studies on AI researchers affected the development of studies
on designers, as experts. “Think-aloud” techniques and “protocol
analysis” 94 were adopted by designers. Charles Eastman 95 was a
computer-aided design practitioner as well as a design theoretician.
He published an article related to intuitive bathroom design and, for
the first time, focused on the designer’s behavior. Donald Schön96 at
MIT opened a new paradigm in design research, and his book, Reflec-
tive Practitioner, did not seem to relate to computer science at first, but
it actually was about the designing behavior of expert designers.
Immense efforts have been made, mainly by the scientists
somehow related to computer-aided design, in the development of
the cognitive aspects of expert designers all over the world.97–101 One
of the first contributions to this field was by Omer Akin,102 at the
1978 “Architectural Design: Interrelations among Theory, Research
and Practice” conference.103, 104 His Ph.D. thesis, “Psychology of Arch-
itects,” 105 at Carnegie Mellon University was one of the recognized
research works and first publications in this field.
The 1980s and 1990s opened a new era in design research.
Many U.S. departments of design began to establish new academic
research units, which were brought about from the government’s
release of funds on design research, and the encouragement and
demand by American industry. The “Ohio Conference on Doctoral
Education in Design” in 1998 was one of the first research appeals
to education in design (in industrial design and in graphic design)
in the U.S. According to Buchanan:
The Proceedings of the Ohio Conference on Doctoral Education
in Design focus on the nature and current state of doctoral
education in design around the world. This volume
explores the foundations of design as a field of inquiry, the
role of research in alternate models of doctoral education,
the relationship between doctoral education and profes-
sional practice, and other issues that are central to the
development of design as an emerging field of investiga-
tion. Included are discussions of many existing and planned
doctoral programs around the world.106
Significant growth in all areas of design research took place during
the 1990s. New professional demands on design research, and
the new educational confrontations for restructuring knowledge
chang ed the context of design. Universities around the world are
developing models of doctoral education in design. Philosophies and
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004 27

107 N. Bayazit, Abstracts: Architectural
Design: Interrelations among Theory,
Research, and Practice (1 978).
108 N. Bayazit, Papers: Architectural Design:
Interrelations among Theory, Research,
and Practice (1 979).
109 N. Bayazit , M . Tapan, N. Ayiran, and
N. Esin, Tasarlama (Dizayn) I. Ulusal
Kongresi Bildirileri (Istanbul: Istanbul
Teknik Universitesi Mimarlik Fakultesi,
198 2).
28
theories of design are popular subjects for discussion. Foundations
and methods of design research are being reevaluated. The form and
structure for the doctorate in design still is under development. The
relationship between practice and research in design has become an
important focusing topic among the academic as well as the profes-
sional communities.
Conclusion
The history of design research with reference to design methodolo-
gies, as well as design science, is a wide and comprehensive subject
that needs additional extensive research. Only a brief review of
research history on this relatively new discipline of design has been
covered here. Generally, articles and book chapters concerning state-
of-the-art reviews, the history of the discipline, or original conference
proceedings and other documents were used in this paper.
Design research and its relevance to design methodology,
as well as scientific research, are reviewed. Most design research
studies were made in architecture because of the requirements of
the societies after World War II. Scientific developments during the
war, and the shortage of resources in postwar societies obviously
necessitated and gave impetus to the creation of new ways to solve
existing problems. Future studies in various design disciplines may
benefit from the experience and progress in disciplines concerned
with building as well as engineering.
Here, I tried to look at design research and its relevance to
design methods and design science from a Turkish perspective.
Mutual influences of information technologies and design research
were the requirements of the era, although that is not mentioned
in many relevant publications. Another area of studying design
research is the utilization of the methods of disciplines in such areas
as psychology, social psychology, management, economics, seman-
tics, and ergonomics. Here, only main starting points have been
indicated concerning the various disciplines.
Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004
Epilog
Academics in Turkey were following the developments in the UK
and U.S. on design methodology and the scientific approaches to
design because the Ph.D. was an obligatory stage of academic life
by law in every field—even in architectural design. Consequently,
the Architectural Design Methods Chair was established in the
ITU Faculty of Architecture in 1973. In Turkey, architectural design
meth ods was recognized by the National Central Authority of
Universities as an academic discipline that same year. The first
international conference on design in Turkey, “Architectural
Design: Interrelations among Theory, Research, and Practice,” was
held at ITU in 1978 in collaboration with DRS from the UK. Selected
abstracts 107 and papers 108 of this conference were published in the
U.S. journal Design Methods and Theories. Even though it must be
confessed that the idea and the intention were very good, the confer-
ence received few papers concerned with design research and its
relevance to design practice; but it gave an impetus to further Ph.D.
studies in architecture.
In 1982 in Turkey, the First National Design Conference also
was organized in the ITU Faculty of Architecture.109 It was the first
national design conference in Turkey covering the disciplines of
architectural design, engineering design, and industrial design.

Design Issues: Volume 20 , Num ber 1 Winter 2 004 29

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